Team - The Initiative Coordination Office - G20 Global Land InitiativeG20 Global Land Initiative

The Initiative Coordination Office

The ICO will have dedicated full-time staff and an annual budget from which it will fund its core activities. The ICO will receive administrative and financial oversight from the UNCCD Secretariat as part of a formalized collaboration agreement.

The Initiative Coordination Team

Muralee Thummarukudy

Director

Muralee Thummarukudy

Director, G20 Global Land Initiative

Dr. Thummarukudy brings to this position over three decades of progressive senior management experience and technical expertise in land restoration issues. He has most recently served as the acting Head of the Disasters and Conflicts Programme at the United Nations Environment Programme, where he implemented a portfolio of over 100 million USD, focusing on ecosystem-based disaster reduction and partnership development.

An internationally renowned expert in disaster response, he played a key role in addressing the environmental aftermath of many major conflicts and disasters, implementing projects in over 35 countries. Prior to joining the United Nations, Dr. Thummarukudy served as Environmental Advisor to Shell Group in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

He has a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. He was also a Beahr’s fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Thummarukudy is also a well-known author in his native Malayalam language.

E-mail: mthummarukudy@unccd.int

Wagaki Wischnewski

Communication Coordinator

Wagaki Wischnewski

Communication Coordinator

Ms. Wischnewski brings to this position over 20 years’ experience in strategic communications, public policy and advocacy on sustainable development. As press and media lead at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) for the last 12 years, she is credited with raising the Convention’s media visibility globally and bringing innovation to communications work. She introduced social media tools and most recently oversaw the Convention’s rebranding and website redesign.

At UNCCD, she led the United Nations system-wide Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification (2010-2020), which raised global awareness about the challenges of desertification and drought and their solutions, and created the appetite for restoration. As the Convention’s gender focal point from 2014 to 2018, she led the process that made the Convention gender responsive. She co-designed a communications-driven webinar series on youth innovation focused on new opportunities presented by the green economy that created a strong foundation for youth engagement.

Fluent in five languages, Ms Wischnewski has Masters Degrees in Journalism (Kenya), Policy Studies (Zimbabwe) and Political Science (United States).

E-mail: wwischnewski@unccd.int

Salma AlSayyad

Policy Officer

Salma Alsayyad

Policy Officer, G20 Global Land Initiative

Salma sees the mission for land as an environmental, social, and economics question requiring new partnerships and multi-sectoral strategies for the people and the planet to benefit.

Prior to joining the Initiative’s Coordination Office, Salma was on UNCCD’s reporting team with a work portfolio that includes engaging with the Environment Working Group at the G20 Forum supporting the birth of the Initiative in 2020, as well as engaging with the Arab World and its regional organizations supporting a notable shift towards land as a priority focus.

Her previous work includes roles with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the international Organization for Migration (IOM) where she has worked in different country contexts.

E-mail: salsayyad@unccd.int

Georgina Bwango

Administrative and Finance Officer

Georgina Bwango

Administrative and Finance Officer

Administrative and Finance Officer at UNCCD playing a key role in the preparation and review of finalised budget proposals, financial forecasts and estimates to help control costs, monitor utilisation of funds, and achieve targets. An experienced accountant with over ten years work experience, of which the last three have been senior positions.

Adept at maintaining proper accounting records, documenting processes, preparing financial statements, and analyzing financials to identify variances, recognize and mitigate risks. Georgina has assessed the adequacy of various project financial management systems; including administration, budgeting, policies, procedures, internal controls, financial reporting and auditing.

Previously the Finance and Budget Officer with the UNEP - MEA Advisory unit. She holds a BSC(Hons) in Applied accounting, and an MBA from Oxford Brookes University. She is also a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).

E-mail: gbwango@unccd.int

Erkan Guler

Data and GIS expert

Erkan Guler

Data and GIS expert

Data and GIS expert based in Bonn, UNCCD with more than 10 years of experience in GIS and Data at UN and several Ministries in Turkey, and 6 years’ experience at energy construction companies such as Shell and Bechtel International.

He has been part of UNCCD for 4 years and has been involved in many activities and programmes like Land Degradation Neutrality Target Setting programme (LDN TSP) and Land Degradation Neutrality Transformative Projects and Programmes (LDN TPP), UNCCD Reporting (PRAIS), and Great Green Wall Accelerator (GGWA).

He holds a Ph.D. degree in soil protection and mobile GIS and a Master's degree in Geo-informatics.

E-mail: eguler@unccd.int

Andreea Becheru

Office Management & Administrative Support

Andreea Becheru

Office Management & Administrative Support

Andreea has both a Legal and Administrative Sciences and Business Administration master’s degree.

She also has over 20 years of professional experience in business administration and project management implementation in multicultural environments such as United Nations, European Commission, Government and Private Sector.

She has been working in UN system for more than 11 years having the opportunity to provide comprehensive support to several global projects’ implementation across UNV, UNICEF, UNFCCC and now to UNCCD.

E-mail: abecheru@unccd.int

Paula Padrino Vilela

Associate Programme Management Officer

Paula Padrino Vilela

Associate Programme Management Officer

Associate Programme Management Officer at UNCCD based in Bonn. Paula is originally from Spain and has accumulated over 4 years of professional experience in the humanitarian and human rights fields, working for major international organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), NATO and the United Nations (UN). Prior to joining the G20 Global Initiative on Land, Paula was Project Coordinator at the United Nations Environment Programme’s Disasters and Conflicts Branch.

She possesses an LLM in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights from the Geneva Academy in Switzerland and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from the Universidad Europea de Madrid in Spain. Having lived in different countries, one of Paula’s passions is learning languages. She speaks fluent Spanish, English, Italian and French and recently took on the challenge to learn German and Arabic.

E-mail: pvilela@unccd.int

Key Technical Experts

Nick Leimu-Brown

Ecology Researcher and Professor

Nick Leimu-Brown

Ecology Researcher and Professor

Plant ecologist with over thirty years’ experience in research, teaching and consultancy.

His research has focused on the impacts of major disturbance events on forests and the factors influencing their recovery. He has worked on logging impacts in Borneo and the Amazon and helped develop forest restoration and conservation strategies in the UK and the Caribbean.

Nick has worked on a number of UN Environment Program projects in former war and disaster zones and advised on forestry, agriculture and conservation issues in Rwanda, Iraq, Iran, Gaza, and regions affected by the 2004 tsunami. He is science adviser to the European Outdoor Conservation Association,

He holds a MA from Cambridge University, and MSc from the University of Aberdeen and a DPhil from the University of Oxford.

He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

E-mail: nick.brown@linacre.ox.ac.uk

Joppe Cramwinckel

Independent Environmental Professional

Joppe Cramwinckel

Independent environmental professional

Pro-active, dedicated, entrepreneurial senior environmental professional and manager.

He has both a technological economics (Stirling University) and chemical engineering degree (Delft University) and has a broad international experience, including 25 years at Shell (Netherlands, Brunei, Oman and the UK) and six years at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (Geneva) as Water Director.

Over the 25 years at Shell, he has been instrumental in improving the environmental and social performance of the company at corporate, operating unit and project level and initiated innovate land restoration activities for abandoned drilling sites.

At the WBCSD he broadened the relationship with the private sector and worked, among other things, to get the private sector involved in restoration projects. He is currently self-employed and lives in the `Netherlands

E-mail: jopcram@gmail.com

Dr. Karen Sudmeier-Rieux

Environmental Education Outreach Specialist

Dr. Karen Sudmeier – November, 2022

Environmental Education Outreach Specialist

Base : Geneva, CH

Environmental education outreach specialist with two decades of experience researching, teaching and publishing on ecosystem restoration for reducing climate risks.

Karen was the lead developer of two Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), most notably: ‘Nature-based Solutions for Disaster and Climate Resilience’, with over 60,000 registered. She is an affiliated Senior Scientist at TH-Köln, Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Germany. Prior to this, Karen was a Senior Adviser, Disaster Risk Reduction with the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Disasters and Conflicts program in Geneva Switzerland, where she managed several large projects related to ‘Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction’.

Karen is also a scholar of ecosystem management for landslide management and developed the concept of “Eco-Safe Roads”, with expertise from the Himalayas. She holds a PhD in Environmental Science from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and Masters’ degrees in international development and forest ecology from Switzerland and the United States. She continues to give university lectures and mentors students worldwide.

Olof Lindén

PhD, Professor Emeritus WMU

Olof Lindén

PhD, Professor Emeritus WMU

PhD (Stockholm University), is Professor (Linnaeus University) and Professor Emeritus (World Maritime University).

His research fields are: Impacts of pollution and climate change on ecosystems; Management and recovery of ecosystems following disasters and conflicts; Rehabilitation of ecosystems such as mangroves and forests; Restoration of pastures and meadows and Oil pollution, and oil spill contingency planning.

Olof has been working in a number of countries and regions for example in the Indian Ocean Region, Arabian Gulf, China, Nigeria, Mexico and Colombia, for a number of the international organizations (IMO, UNEP, World Bank, FAO, IUCN).

He has initiated and coordinated research programs funded by Sweden, Finland, UK, World Bank and Japan.

E-mail: ol@wmu.se

Iyenemi Ibimina Kakulu

PhD, Senior Project Advisor (UNEP)

Iyenemi Ibimina Kakulu

PhD, Senior Project Advisor (UNEP)

Consultant and Senior Project Advisor with UNEP’s Crisis Management Branch, on its HYPREP support project to the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) in the cleanup and remediation of Hydrocarbon polluted lands in Ogoniland, Nigeria.

She is a Professor of Land Management and Valuation of the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria and has over 35 years of teaching and research experience in land appraisal, development and management related issues.

Professor Kakulu is a Professional Estate Surveyor and Valuer, a Fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Registered by the Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria.

She possesses a PhD in Real Estate and Planning (Reading University, UK), an MSc in Urban Land Appraisal (Reading University, UK) and a B.Tech in Estate Management (Rivers State University, Nigeria).

E-mail: ibbykakulu@gmail.com

Santhakumar Velappan Nair

Professor Economic-sociology

Santhakumar V

Professor Economic-sociology

A professor at Azim Premji University in Bangalore, India.

He has specialised in environmental and institutional economics and published a number of research articles in these areas. He has also worked as a consultant of UNEP for a number of assignments. His task in these assignments was to carry out the economic assessment of environmental losses due to disaster, conflicts and other man-made events.

He has also worked on incentive and institutional mechanisms to conserve the environment and natural resources including biodiversity.

He started his research work on land and water resources and irrigation-led salinization. This has led to an understanding of the policy-induced disincentives leading to the degradation of natural resources. His association with the Global 20 initiative of the UNCCD may help assessing the economic losses of land-degradation and the designing of incentives which may encourage land-users, land-owners, private firms and governments to take effective steps against landdegradation and desertification.

E-mail: santhakumar@apu.edu.in

Technical and other Support

Sukhesh Vadavil

Web & Social Media Strategist

Sukhesh Vadavil

Web and Social Media consultant

A veteran Digital Transformation & Strategy Consultant with 17+ years of professional excellence with international organizations, Sukhesh has worked with a handful of UN departments since 2019. His primary responsibility at UNCCD is to enhance the web, social media and overall internet media presence and impact of the G20 global initiatives.

He is a PG Diploma holder in Communication, Digital Media and Journalism with solid experience in online communication initiatives for various international campaigns with diverse objectives. He is experienced in website design, digital transformation strategy, custom application and web development solutions as well. Sukhesh is based in Kerala, India.

E-mail: sukheshv@vividreal.com

Antonia Mendes

Stakeholder Engagement Consultant

Antonia de Abreu Coutinho

Digital marketing specialist

Environmental digital marketing and stakeholder engagement specialist. She holds a Master’s degree in Environment and Public Health from University of Melbourne and a Bachelor degree in Economics from Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. And she has been working with the UN since 2016. Antonia has worked during four and half years with the UN Environment Programme at the Disasters and Conflicts Branch. Her main responsibilities were communications, knowledge management, editorial coordination, digital marketing and web support. In addition, during her last year at UNEP, she was the main focal point and responsible for the stakeholder engagement of the Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR), which has over 20 members.

Prior to joining UN Environment Programme, Antonia worked principally in finance and marketing and was an active volunteer in the environmental field. In Brazil, she worked in the marketing strategy department of Ipiranga, a Brazilian oil company.

During her Master’s degree in Melbourne, Australia, Antonia volunteered with an urban agriculture NGO, Three Thousand Acres. She also started a citizen science digital application on urban biodiversity, together with her university and peers. Antonia participated in the Climate Reality training, the global programme hosted by Al Gore aiming to explain climate change clearly to non-experts. Antonia then acted as a mentor during subsequent Climate Reality training in Brazil in 2014, hosted in her home town of Rio de Janeiro. Antonia is passionate about the importance of communicating environmental issues to the general public and making sure UN Environment’s message reaches every household.

E-mail: atrompieri89@gmail.com

Daniela Cristofori

Visualisation Consultant

Daniela Cristofori

Graphic designer

Stockholm based graphic designer with 17 years of experience working for the UN and other leading organizations that serve some of the world’s most marginalized people.

During this time, she has worked with nearly all UN agencies and have held/ or is currently holding Long Term Arrangements with UNICEF, FAO, UNEP, UNESCO, ILO, Transparency International, Clinton Foundation, and I-TECH.

She has spent most of her adult life in southern Africa; Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique to be precise. Prior to that she lived for several years in Tbilisi, Georgia, in Rome and Milan, Italy.

She joined the UNCCD team as an external consultant in 2019 and has since then worked on refining the new UNCCD corporate identity and redesigning the website.

Daniela is fluent in Swedish, Italian, English and conversational in Portuguese.

E-mail: daniela@danielacristofori.com

Devashree Niraula

Research Associate

Devashree Niraula

Research Associate, G20 Global Land Initiative

Devashree is from Kathmandu, Nepal is a research associate at the G20 global initiative on land.

She is a graduate of Gothenburg University, Sweden with a major in climate and ecosystem.

Devashree has a solid academic background in research, climate data and geospatial analysis.

Prior to her involvement with UNCCD, she was an intern at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as a climate and security intern. In this capacity, Devashree had been supporting the unit with research, data analysis and coordination.

Devashree’s interests lie in interdisciplinary work of anthropogenic impacts research and using that research to inform policy on all levels.

E-mail: dniraula@unccd.int

Apoorva Bose

G20 Programme Coordinator, India

Apoorva Bose

G20 Programme Coordinator, India

Apoorva is an International Human Rights lawyer who works as the India Programme Coordinator, Global Initiative G20 at UNCCD. She holds a Master’s degree in International Law from the Graduate Institute in Geneva, and did her Bachelor’s degree in Legal Studies from the National University of Advanced Legal Studies, India.

Her areas of expertise range from environmental and humanitarian law to development communications and programme coordination. Prior to joining UNCCD, she worked as a Communications and Community Engagement Expert at UNEP and as a Legislative Assistant to a Member of the Indian Parliament. At UNEP, Apoorva was involved in the Federal Government of Nigeria’s Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), and oversaw the Disasters and Conflicts Branch’s communications strategy.

Apoorva’s professional experience extends beyond jurisprudence and communications. She has donned many hats; an actress in the Malayalam film industry, a singer, a voice artist, and a classically-trained dancer. She is also a TEDx speaker and was awarded the “30 under 30” recognition for lawyers and legal influencers by BW Businessworld in 2021.

E-mail: abose@unccd.int

Interns

Eduardo Schlemm

Intern

Eduardo Schlemm

Intern

Eduardo Schlemm from Curitiba, Brazil, is a gender intern for the G20 Global Initiative at the UNCCD. Eduardo has a bachelor's degree in architecture and urbanism. He is currently pursuing a master's in Planning and Public Governance in the Planning and Public Policy research line at the Federal University of Technology – Paraná. He is also a volunteer at the Youth Hub Action of Curitiba, which aims to raise awareness and develop young leaders in the field of sustainable development.

Eduardo is interested in studying the ecological transition in cities. He wants to devote his career to the development of sustainable and liveable cities for everyone.

Andrea Martínez Bernáldez

Intern

Andrea Martínez Bernáldez

Intern

Andrea holds a bachelor’s degree in law with Excellence Honors from Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico. During her studies, she was an exchange student for a year in Switzerland, where she was awarded the Certificate in Transnational Law by the University of Geneva. She is now pursuing a master’s degree in International Dispute Settlement, starting in September 2023.

Andrea has worked as an intern at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the Mexican Federal Administrative Court, the Geneva Graduate Institute, the School of Social Sciences and Government at Tecnológico de Monterrey, and Von Wobeser y Sierra S.C. Her international experience also includes Brazil, Canada, Argentina, and Ireland.

Andrea’s areas of interest include international environmental law, the law of the seas, international trade law and international dispute settlement.

The Initiative Coordination Office

The Initiative Coordination Team

Muralee Thummarukudy

Wagaki Wischnewski

Salma AlSayyad

Georgina Bwango

Erkan Guler

Andreea Becheru

Paula Padrino Vilela

Key Technical Experts

Nick Leimu-Brown

Joppe Cramwinckel

Dr. Karen Sudmeier-Rieux

Olof Lindén

Iyenemi Ibimina Kakulu

Santhakumar Velappan Nair

Technical and other Support

Sukhesh Vadavil

Antonia Mendes

Daniela Cristofori

Devashree Niraula

Apoorva Bose

Interns

Eduardo Schlemm

Andrea Martínez Bernáldez

Subscribe to our newsletter